Feasting on Christ: The Necessity of Faith and the Danger of Unfenced Communion

• Jesus as the Bread of Life 00:00:59 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor introduces the main theme of the sermon, noting that Jesus 'doubles down' on his identity as the bread of life in John 6, making it controversial and difficult.
• Transubstantiation and Roman Catholic Interpretation 00:01:19 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor acknowledges that Roman Catholics use this passage to justify transubstantiation but states he disagrees with that interpretation, promising to address it later.
• Jesus as the Great Divider 00:08:36 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that Jesus is not just a uniter but also a divider, citing Luke 2 and Matthew 10 to show that belief in Christ creates division even within families.
• Salvation by God's Work Alone 00:11:43 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor emphasizes that salvation is solely the work of God, drawing on the concept that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws them.
• Critique of Modern Evangelism Methods 00:12:14 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor critiques the modern church's tendency to 'water down' the gospel or use 'gimmicks' to avoid offense, contrasting this with Jesus' method of increasing the offense of the message to separate believers from non-believers.
• The Nature of Evangelism and Gospel Presentation 00:12:46 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor contrasts the cultural tendency to 'water down' the gospel to avoid offense with Jesus' method of 'doubling down' on offensive truths to separate sheep from goats.
• The Definition of Belief (Pisteuo) 00:15:36 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor defines 'believing' not as intellectual assent but as placing 'all of my faith, all of my trust, all of my hope, everything upon the Lord Jesus Christ,' using the analogy of a roulette bet.
• The Present Possession of Eternal Life 00:17:19 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that eternal life is an 'already' reality for the believer, not just a future hope, providing the endurance needed for current suffering.
• Typology of Manna and Christ 00:21:34 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains how the manna in the wilderness was a 'type and shadow' pointing to Jesus, the true bread, and how 1 Corinthians 10 confirms that the spiritual rock was Christ.
• The Necessity of Eating Christ's Flesh and Drinking His Blood 00:27:33 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor highlights Jesus' harsh requirement that one must eat his flesh and drink his blood to have life, noting the dispute this caused among the Jews.
• The Invitation to the Bread of Life 00:26:22 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor identifies Jesus' statement 'If anyone... let him come to me' as a universal invitation for all present to feast upon the bread of life, noting it was spoken to Pharisees in a synagogue.
• Jesus as the Fulfillment of Old Testament Types 00:27:04 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that the bread in the wilderness and the rock in the wilderness were types pointing directly to Jesus, who is the living bread that came down from heaven.
• The Nature of Jewish Dispute and Unbelief 00:27:51 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor interprets the Jews' dispute not as genuine confusion but as obstinance and disbelief, revealing their status as 'goats' or unbelievers who hate the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Jesus' Intentional Division and All-or-Nothing Faith 00:29:01 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor argues that Jesus 'doubles down' on his harsh language to drive away those refusing to believe, establishing that following Christ is an 'all or nothing' deal with no half-hearted partial following.
• Metaphorical Language and Spiritual Birth 00:30:22 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor compares this passage to Jesus' interactions with Nicodemus and the woman at the well, arguing that Jesus uses graphic, metaphorical language to illustrate spiritual realities that listeners often misunderstand literally.
• Refutation of Transubstantiation 00:32:59 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor addresses the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, arguing that Jesus was not instituting the Lord's Supper here but using metaphor to teach that His flesh and blood are the true food and drink for eternal life.
• Means of Grace and Continual Feasting 00:38:06 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that believers continue to 'feast' on Christ through means of grace such as the proclamation of the Word, baptism, and prayer, leading to growth in sanctification and maturity.
• Spiritual Growth and Sanctification 00:39:19 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of physical growth to explain the necessity of continuous spiritual maturation and sanctification in the Christian walk.
• Continual Feasting on Christ 00:39:34 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor emphasizes that believers must constantly feed on Christ through His word and fellowship to maintain their relationship with Him.
• Faith and Trust in Christ 00:40:02 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor challenges the congregation to examine whether their faith is a current, active walk with Christ or merely a reliance on past experiences.
• Communion and Thanksgiving 00:41:47 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor transitions to the liturgical act of communion, describing it as a tangible reminder of Christ's body and blood and a means of grace.

• Sermon Illustration 00:05:17 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references a lesson on the young years of Jesus from Luke chapter 2, specifically the presentation of Jesus in the temple and Simeon's prophecy that the child was appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel.
• Sermon Illustration 00:10:55 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a 'rock of stumbling' versus a 'rock of foundation' to explain how Jesus separates people, noting that while one can talk about 'God' with various religious groups, introducing Jesus Christ causes division.
• Sermon Illustration 00:16:21 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a roulette table to illustrate the concept of 'pisteuo' (faith), describing it as placing 'all of my faith, all of my trust, all of my hope, everything upon the Lord Jesus Christ' rather than relying on other means of grace like baptism or church attendance.
• Sermon Illustration 00:20:06 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references the Hebrew idiom of repetition for emphasis, citing 'dying, you will die' in Genesis and 'seen I have seen' in Exodus, as well as R.C. Sproul's point about God saying 'holy, holy, holy' to explain why Jesus repeats 'I am the bread of life.'
• Sermon Illustration 00:39:05 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of physical growth from milk to solid food to illustrate the Christian's need to continually grow in sanctification and maturity by feasting on Christ, rather than remaining spiritual babies.
• Sermon Illustration 00:39:19 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses an analogy comparing physical growth (eating solid food) to spiritual growth, illustrating that just as the body needs continuous nourishment, the soul needs to continually feast on Christ.

• Pastoral Charge 00:37:26 ▶️ 📄
  > Place faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior for eternal life.
• Pastoral Charge 00:40:02 ▶️ 📄
  > Examine one's current spiritual state to ensure they are continually walking with Christ and feasting on Him through His word and fellowship, rather than relying on past events.
• Pastoral Charge 00:40:02 ▶️ 📄
  > Examine one's current spiritual state and ensure active faith and walking with Christ rather than relying on past events.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] Well, as you are being seated, if you would take your copy of the scriptures with me and turn to the gospel according to John, we are at the penultimate sermon from this chapter.
[00:00:13] We have been in the gospel of John chapter 6 since the time that we went to the Ligonier Conference and Gavin opened us up talking about the feeding of the 5,000.
[00:00:25] but it's such a rich chapter full of so much stuff it's one of those where it's really one big long thought after the feeding of the 5,000 and then Jesus coming out the disciples walking
[00:00:39] on the water and everything meeting them and calming the storm and everything like that ever since they make it to the other side of the the sea this main thought has continued on this primary thought of Jesus being the bread of life. As we continue this this morning, we're going to
[00:00:59] see that Jesus not only continues to refer to himself as the bread of life, but he sort of doubles down on it. Hard, very hard, to the point where you start to see some very difficult parts
[00:01:13] of the scripture. This is a very controversial passage that we'll be looking at this morning.
[00:01:19] if you are roman catholic or grew up roman catholic you understand this scripture wildly differently than uh most people who did not grow up in that uh and and to be honest with you this
[00:01:34] was one of the scriptures that after i came out of catholicism became a follower of jesus christ legitimately um not that there aren't catholics that aren't legitimate followers of christ i believe that there definitely are. I'm just saying I wasn't. I grew up Roman Catholic, but I was
[00:01:52] definitely not trusting in Christ for salvation. And regarding some teachings, particularly around the Lord's Supper or the communion or Eucharist, this scripture that we're going to be looking at this morning is one of those sort of ammunition scriptures that the Roman Catholics will use
[00:02:10] to justify the practice of transubstantiation.
[00:02:14] I don't think that that's what the Scripture here is talking about at all, but we'll talk about that as we get to it when we look through these number of verses.
[00:02:21] So if you would stand with me this morning, turning to John chapter 6, we're going to look at verses 47 through 59 this morning.
[00:02:30] So stand with me for the reading of God's Word together.
[00:02:35] Truly, truly, I say to you, verse 47, whoever believes has eternal life.
[00:02:42] I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
[00:02:48] This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
[00:02:53] I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
[00:02:59] And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
[00:03:04] The Jews then disputed amongst themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
[00:03:10] So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
[00:03:20] Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
[00:03:27] For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.
[00:03:32] Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
[00:03:37] as the living father sent me and i live because of the father so whoever feeds on me he also will live because of me this is the bread that came down from heaven not like the bread the fathers
[00:03:50] ate and died whoever feeds on this bread will live forever jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at capernaum as a reminder these are the very words of the living god so please
[00:04:04] receive them with the authority that they carry because this is the word of god please be seated let's go to the lord in prayer and ask his blessing upon this time our gracious heavenly father we thank you for the scriptures that you have given to us that reveal to us the word of
[00:04:25] god the the who you are and how we may be reconciled to you our sad state that we are in before reconciliation and the great victory of our Lord Jesus Christ through his death, burial,
[00:04:40] resurrection, and ascension to bring us in communion with you, Lord. We thank you, Heavenly Father, and pray that you would bless the time of the proclamation of your word, that we remember that I am nothing, that we in this room are nothing, Lord, but we are all to be at the feet
[00:04:56] of the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord. We seek your will and your word, and we pray, Heavenly Father, that it will be done this morning, Lord.
[00:05:05] Give me the words to speak, and when you're finished, close my mouth, I pray.
[00:05:08] In Jesus' name, amen.
[00:05:11] Feasting on Christ by faith is what I've entitled this message.
[00:05:17] I was inspired this past Wednesday as we went through our Dust to Glory lesson.
[00:05:24] It was about the young years of Lord Jesus Christ, which was a little bit of a difficult lesson in one sense because it's like, well, there isn't much, right?
[00:05:33] So we don't have much about the younger life of Christ.
[00:05:36] We have after his birth, the birth narrative in Luke chapter 2, we have Jesus going and being presented in the temple, as which was given according to the law of Moses, that Mary and Joseph were faithful.
[00:05:50] And we talked about that.
[00:05:51] That was a really cool thought to think about how Mary and Joseph, even before Jesus lived out his perfect righteous life before the Lord, keeping every part of the law, that God chose Mary and Joseph, who were godly people who
[00:06:05] followed the law, and they brought Jesus to the temple whenever he was not old enough to start his ministry, of course, because he's just a little baby. But he always was part and kept the
[00:06:16] law of Moses, even through his parents. And I thought that that was kind of an interesting thing. But in Luke chapter 25, or chapter 2, verses 25 through 35. In fact, why don't you turn
[00:06:28] there with me real quick? We're going to come back to John. There's a point that I'm making here.
[00:06:33] But that Jesus was presented in the temple. And as he's being presented in the temple, there's this guy there by the name of Simeon. And Simeon was sort of a prophet who made a prophecy
[00:06:47] about Christ, and it was told to him by the Holy Spirit that he wouldn't die until basically he saw the Messiah. And so the record of that is given to us in Luke chapter 22, and let's look at
[00:07:02] 25 through 35. It says this, now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the holy spirit was upon him and it had been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he would
[00:07:20] not see death before he had seen the lord's christ and he came in the spirit into the temple and when the parents brought the child brought in the child jesus to do for him according to the custom of the
[00:07:33] law he took up in his arms a blessed excuse me and bless god and said lord now you are letting your servant to part in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation that
[00:07:46] you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for the revelation to the gent of for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people israel and his father and his mother marveled
[00:07:58] at what was about what was said about him and simeon blessed them and said to mary his mother behold this child is appointed for the fall and the rising of many in israel for and for a sign
[00:08:13] that is opposed and a sword will pierce through your soul own soul also so that uh thoughts from from many hearts may be revealed i wanted to focus on this idea of jesus appointing, being appointed for the fall and the rising of many. Because I think that's what really
[00:08:36] stood out, particularly with regard to the passage that we're about to partake in, in John chapter six. That Jesus is someone who came not to bring peace is what he says also in places like Matthew
[00:08:53] chapter 10 and 34 through 39. He says, don't think that I've come to bring peace. I've not come to bring peace, but a sword. And I've come to divide a father against mother and brother against brother
[00:09:08] and son against mother and all of these various things. That Jesus Christ is the great, in one way, uniter. That's what we read about and we will read about in John chapter 17, where Jesus prays
[00:09:23] that all of his people would be one as he and his father are one. So with regard to the body of Christ, with regard to what, you know, what we've been called to be as brothers and sisters in the
[00:09:36] body of Christ, united together in Jesus Christ, he's as much of a great divider, a great divider.
[00:09:45] And if you talk about, you know, to people, people will say things and they've got no problem with a belief in god for instance you know this idea oh yeah i'm i believe in god you know i believe
[00:09:59] or a higher power or something along those lines you know we hear people our politicians say it all the time right god bless america and and and and we're one nation under god and there's some sort
[00:10:10] of like lip service given to god but as soon as you bring jesus christ into it then it becomes very divisive. Like, you can talk about God with a Jewish person or with a, with Islam, you know,
[00:10:23] Islamic person, Muslim. You could talk about God with a Hindu or just some spiritualistic sort of person. Maybe they're, they're spiritual but not religious or something like that, right? They're a Libra if it matters, right? So, so they, you can talk to them about this concept of God and it's
[00:10:40] sort of unifying the sense that most people are, you know, sort of have some sort of a belief in god but jesus christ separates that's when the rubber meets the road so to speak and the rock
[00:10:55] he's called in the scripture a rock of stumbling a stone of offense that that he is either the one upon whom you are building yourself he's the rock of foundation upon which our salvation is built
[00:11:08] or he's the rock that you stumble over he's the rock that causes division he's the rock that that causes a separation. And we see that happen throughout most of his ministry, but probably nothing greater than in this very passage in which we find ourselves. And I think there's
[00:11:30] a second thing that we need to recognize from this. Number one, Jesus being the great divider and also understanding the past couple of weeks as we talked about, no one can come to me unless
[00:11:43] the Father who sent me draw him and I will raise him up on the last day, or all that the Father gives to me will come to me and I will raise him up on the last day, is that we remember that
[00:11:54] salvation is only the work of God. That it comes through the foolishness of preaching and the articulation of the gospel. In our day and age, particularly in the western church, we've sort of really gone the opposite way there, haven't we? Where we have thought to ourselves, well, if I
[00:12:14] just do enough, you know, seeker-sensitive drawing of the people in, if I have enough gimmicks, or if I put on a great show for the people to entertain them, or if I draw them in through
[00:12:28] various, you know, felt needs, ministries, or various things along those lines, that we just need to entice the people. Or if we start to do something like this, where because I don't want to offend anybody, because I might make them upset, or I might hurt their feelings about the gospel
[00:12:46] or the truth of what the scripture says, I begin to do things like water it down. I sort of brush it over. I smooth it over. And then if I'm an evangelist, I start making great claims like,
[00:12:57] like, hey, if you want to be released of your addiction, just come to Jesus. Or if you want your life to be great just come to Jesus or or fill in the blank of all the various ways
[00:13:06] that we have a tendency to water things down or to brush things over or smooth them so that way Jesus might become more enticing to them but that's like literally the opposite of what we
[00:13:23] see Jesus doing here that that not only does he has he begun saying within the scriptures I am the bread of life i am the true food the true bread that has come down to heaven from heaven
[00:13:36] whenever whenever there seems to be some opposition to the claim that jesus is making jesus doesn't like sort of nicely smooth it over or make it sound prettier or water down what he's saying no instead he sort of like doubles down and he increases he's gonna take what's already
[00:13:56] offensive, and he's going to go, like, dial it to 11. He's going to make it even more offensive.
[00:14:04] And I think that the whole point of why he's doing this is that he's separating sheep from goats.
[00:14:11] He's doing this to reveal those people who are genuinely and truly following him, seeking him, and relying upon him, feasting on him for eternal life. And those people who are merely coming to get their bellies full again, or to see the next trick or, you know, miracle or something along
[00:14:32] those lines. And so we see that Christ instead is going to be even more of, you know, a divider in this particular case. So turn back with me to John chapter 6, if you haven't yet. John chapter
[00:14:49] six, and let's look at verse 47. So he says this, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I think this right here is kind of the focus of the entire passage, right? He talks
[00:15:05] about, I am the bread of life, that I am the bread that came down from heaven. But the whole point and the whole idea of everything that he is pointing boils down to this one verse. Truly,
[00:15:18] truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. This gives us the context. All that Jesus is talking about and all that he's about to say has to do with believing in him for eternal life.
[00:15:36] A genuine believer in the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to believe in him even through the difficult things, even through the tough sayings, even through the things that are sometimes hard to hear, they'll say, I may not understand this completely, but I sure do believe in you, and I'm
[00:15:54] going to continue to believe and trust in you. In verse 47, when he says the word believe here, this is the same word that's been used in other parts of the Gospel of John, particularly John
[00:16:06] 3.16, which is very, very familiar to all of us, right? The word pisteuo. This is the word that means to rely upon, to trust in. It means that if, you know, Jesus is, if we were to use an
[00:16:21] illustration of a roulette table or something like that, I'm putting it all on black, right? So the idea is I'm placing all of my faith, all of my trust, all of my hope, everything upon the Lord
[00:16:34] Jesus Christ. And so that means I'm not relying upon anything else. Baptism is a means of grace, but it doesn't save anybody. Gathering together this morning in the body of Christ is a means of grace, but being inside of a church does not save you. That helping little old ladies across
[00:16:53] the street or giving money or whatever you fill in the blank to think that is going to make you right before God does not save you. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is what saves you. You're
[00:17:06] placing all of your faith, all of your trust in him. And notice he says, whoever believes, and then he uses the word has. I think that's very awesome. He doesn't say will have. He doesn't talk about it as
[00:17:19] if it's some future thing, even though we find the fulfillment in the future that we are looking the resurrection right all of us that either with Christ comes even before I finish preaching this message that we will be caught up with him into the air that we will be transformed so to speak
[00:17:37] resurrected in the process or we will die and then we will one day receive the resurrection of Jesus Christ that there is a future aspect of that but notice that the possession of that eternal life
[00:17:52] is an already thing. It means that today, if I am believing in Jesus Christ, I have eternal life, that I already am there. I haven't found, we haven't received the fulfillment of it, but it is currently an existential state in which I find myself. I am in the state of having
[00:18:20] eternal life today, which is a wonderful promise for all of us. That's a wonderful hope that we can all place our hearts and minds and thoughts on. And that's the reason why we can endure the
[00:18:35] things of life. Because we recognize that it's not all about what's happening here and now.
[00:18:42] That the suffering in which we may be enduring, sickness, broken relationships, broken whatever, All of these things are what we may have to endure for what another, maybe, you know, some of the younger kids in here, 70, 80 years. Some of us older kids, older kids in here as well, maybe,
[00:19:02] you know, 20, 30 more years. But then the races run and the hope of our salvation becomes a reality and we can endure the things. We can continue when we have that eternal heavenly perspective
[00:19:18] that my eternal life is already here. It's already in my possession if my faith and trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ. So eternal life is for all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:19:35] Now, he moves on in verse 48. He says, I am the bread of life. By the way, how many times has he said this already? How many times do you think that he may be driving home a particular point
[00:19:48] that he's trying to get into their minds? Like, whenever we look at something that's repeated in Scripture, particularly in the Jewish mindset, right? This sort of, this idea of, like, for instance, one of my most favorite things, this is a fun little Hebrew tidbit for you guys, is that
[00:20:06] one of the ways that you emphasize something to an extent is that through repetition, okay?
[00:20:12] In the garden, whenever God says to Adam, in the day that you eat of this fruit, most of our translations will say something like, you will surely die. But you know what it says in the
[00:20:26] Hebrew literally? It says, dying, you will die. It repeats it for emphasis, right? This idea of a superlative sort of understanding. When God says to Moses in the burning bush, surely I have seen the oppression of my people, right? For I know their suffering. What he says
[00:20:49] is he says, seen I have seen, right? And one of my favorite parts is from a statement is from R.C. Sproul who talks about whenever God says that he is holy, he doesn't just say he's holy.
[00:21:02] and he doesn't just say that he's holy holy you see he says holy holy holy is the lord of hosts because he is the ultimate holy you see and so this repetition is meant to emphasize something
[00:21:20] so you may get a hold of it and pay attention and so again he says i am the bread of life get it through your minds i'm the bread of life i'm the one who sustains you to eternal life
[00:21:34] your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that you may eat of it and not die i think it's very cool how how exodus the exodus
[00:21:48] story is very parallel to the salvation of all of us right they were caught in idolatry slavery. We are all of us caught in the slavery of sin. They needed a deliverer to bring them out
[00:22:07] of their place of bondage and slavery. And we have a deliverer who has come to deliver us from our place of bondage and slavery. This is going to be emphasized further in John chapter 8 when he talks about the fact that anyone who the Son sets free is free indeed. Why? Because
[00:22:30] we're in bondage to slavery. And just the same way that the continued sustenance of the people in the desert came through the manna that were given to them, the continued sustenance of us in our state of eternal life is to continue to feast upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
[00:22:50] picture that he's making. He's using that illustration to describe that. If you would, turn with me over to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 for just a moment. I think this is very interesting.
[00:23:03] The manna that was given to the Israelites in the time of their exodus, they still died. It was not the fullness of the eternal life that was provided by the Lord Jesus Christ. This is turning into
[00:23:17] a sort of a superlative understanding. Even as Moses gave the bread that you ate and then later died, right? Even so much more, I am the bread that I will give you that you may live to eternal life.
[00:23:33] In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 1 through 5, it says this, for I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all past the sea. It's a reference
[00:23:46] to the cloud. Remember that overshadowed them? A reference to them going through the Red Sea and their deliverance. And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, right?
[00:23:57] And they all ate the same. Look, listen to what it says here. I think that's kind of interesting.
[00:24:02] They all ate the same spiritual food and they all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. What Paul, you can turn back if
[00:24:21] you want to, what Paul is doing here is he's making this comparison, this idea of, he's talking to the Corinthians, and he's saying, yeah, people like you in times past, they also had been given great
[00:24:33] things from God and gifts and things, and then they acted a fool, right, so to speak, and God brought chastisement about them. But notice how he mentions that the manna, even in the wilderness, though it was real manna, and though the rock that was in the wilderness, the water that came
[00:24:50] from the rock, it was a real rock and it was real water. But how did Paul describe both the food and the rock? He described them as spiritual, right? Spiritual food and the spiritual rock.
[00:25:05] Why? And then he gives the answer, right? Who is the rock? What does it say the rock is in the wilderness, that rock was Christ. What's he saying? Those are types and shadows that are meant to
[00:25:20] illustrate something that points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. That as God fed them with manna in the wilderness, the Lord Jesus Christ feeds us with his flesh. And as God gave them water in
[00:25:34] the wilderness, Jesus gives us his blood for drink. And the reason why I bring it here is I think that builds a context for how we should read and interpret these next verses that lead to,
[00:25:50] or in the scriptures that are so difficult to understand. So he says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven, okay? If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread
[00:26:05] that I give for the life, for the life of the world, is my flesh. So Jesus gives an invitation here, okay? If anyone, you see, you notice that? That is an invitation for all of us in here to
[00:26:22] feast upon the bread of life. That all of us in here have been invited to come to Jesus. Not everybody's going to, but we've all been invited. And he's speaking, remember, he's speaking to Pharisees and the Jewish leadership. And we're going to find out later on, this is all happening
[00:26:38] within a synagogue, which makes sense because it seems like a lot of the fights that Jesus gets in with all the Pharisees and religious leaders of that time happened to be in synagogues. But Jesus
[00:26:48] is saying, he's offering an invitation. He's saying, I am the living bread. If you can accept it, that bread in the wilderness, it was about me. That rock in the wilderness, that was about me.
[00:27:04] and it all points directly to me i am the fulfillment i am what the bread is pointing to it's pointing to me i am the living bread that came down from heaven then he continues on then
[00:27:20] the jews disputed amongst themselves saying how can this man give us flesh to eat uh give us his flesh to eat so jesus said to them truly truly i say to you unless you eat the flesh of the son of
[00:27:33] man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. So let's stop there for just a moment.
[00:27:41] The Jews then disputed amongst themselves. Do you understand, I think, what that word might be connoting? I think there's something important that we need to take from this.
[00:27:51] It's not that the Jews are sitting here astounded in the sense of like, I don't understand what this means. What do you mean, Jesus? You know what I'm saying? They're not like, what I'm trying to say is that there isn't an altruistic motive behind what's going on.
[00:28:06] their disputing is a picture of their disbelief. Their disputing is a picture of them like, whoa, what is this guy saying? Who does he think he is saying things like this? And so whenever they
[00:28:21] begin to dispute amongst themselves, they're revealing something about themselves. They're revealing their obstinance toward believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as they reveal that obstinance. Basically, they're revealing themselves as goats, right? They're revealing themselves as
[00:28:41] unbelievers. They're revealing themselves as people who hate the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't want to come to him. They're not believing in him. And so how does Jesus respond to them? He doesn't like change the message. He doesn't, I don't know, water it down or try to make them feel better
[00:29:01] about themselves, he sort of doubles down. He becomes even more outrageous. And I think that's the whole point, is that in there, as he is the one who is the sword that divides mother against
[00:29:17] father, and brother against sister, and all of these things, he is kind of driving away those who are refusing to believe, which I think is a very interesting thing that he's not afraid to do
[00:29:32] this. He's not afraid to do this. Remember the scripture that talks about not giving pearls to the pigs and things. That's sort of what's happening. He's making, he's causing a definite division. In other words, there's no half-hearted partial following of Jesus Christ. He's not one
[00:29:54] person to be followed amongst many, or you can half-heartedly with one foot in the world and one foot in the church, so to speak, follow Christ. It's an all or nothing deal. You're either in
[00:30:07] Christ or you're not. And so he is driving away those who are not in Christ. And I think he's doing it intentionally by using these words. I also think that this is a little bit of a Nicodemus
[00:30:22] thing where he is talking about something spiritual but they're not getting it right remember nicodemus he was talking about you must be born again and nicodemus is like can a man enter into his mother's womb again and be born and jesus is like no you're not getting it i'm
[00:30:38] talking about a spiritual birth here and i think that when we see the woman at the well hey if you would have known who who was giving you offering this water you'd ask him for living water and and
[00:30:49] and she's like, great, you've got living water. I won't have to come back to the well anymore.
[00:30:56] This is fantastic. And Jesus is like, no, no, you're not getting it. I'm using the illustration to talk about something deeper. And I think the same thing is happening here. Okay. So we don't have to be worried about the weirded outness of the language that he's using here. I think he's
[00:31:12] talking about, he's using this metaphor in a very graphic way to illustrate something spiritual, just the same way he did with Nicodemus just the same way he did with the woman at the well so he
[00:31:24] says in verse 54 whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day you have to admit that's weird right that's hard to understand that's sort
[00:31:39] of hard to believe this statement that he's saying verse 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.
[00:31:57] As the living father sent me and I live because of the father, so whoever feeds on me will also live because of me. And then he makes this declaration about himself. This is the bread
[00:32:11] that came down from heaven, not like the bread that the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. You see what he's doing? He's using that argument from lesser to greater. He's using it to say, your fathers whom you love and revere so much, and Moses whom you
[00:32:30] love and revere so much, they all ate of that spiritual bread and they died still. I'm the one that gives you the bread that leads to life. And the life that I give, I give through my flesh
[00:32:42] and my blood. Okay? So, why does Jesus speak this way? Why is he speaking in such a way that seems to, like, ammunition to speak? So, like, for instance, I'll just go ahead and go into this
[00:32:59] since we're here. This is one of the proof texts that the Roman Catholic Church will use to describe communion the eucharist where they say during the during the time of the um eucharistic prayer in a roman catholic church the the the priest will will lay his hands over the bread and the
[00:33:20] wine that's on the altar table and he will make make a i want to say incantation i'm not trying to be rude but he makes a sort of a prayer of consecration and then at that moment the roman
[00:33:32] catholic church teaches that that bread turns literally into the body of christ and this wine this turns literally into the blood of christ through a process that they call transubstantiation okay and so and so they they they will use this passage here to say see jesus says point blank
[00:33:56] he says my flesh is true food and he says my blood is to drink true drink and then he says unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and unless you drink the blood of the son of man
[00:34:10] then you have no life right and so they'll say see this is the means by which we teach that the eucharist is what gives you life so you have to come to mass in the roman catholic church because
[00:34:25] only in the mass of the Roman Catholic Church can a person actually transubstantiate the bread and the wine into the actual body and actual blood of Christ. And so that's one of the reasons why
[00:34:37] they say there's no salvation outside of the Catholic Church. Because nowhere else do you literally feast on the flesh of Jesus Christ and drink the blood of Jesus Christ. And they'll use this passage as a means of saying that. There's a couple problems with that. Where in the context
[00:34:57] here did Jesus even begin talking about the Lord's Supper? That's not even been instituted yet.
[00:35:04] That's not something that's going to be instituted for several chapters, meaning probably several years or, you know, however long after this event, whenever this happened. We don't know when the feeding of the 5,000 happened in the course of Christ's ministry. You know, was it,
[00:35:19] he's about three years of ministry was it year two or so on and so forth so that's the first thing is that this has nothing to do with the fact that jesus is talking about the lord's supper at
[00:35:28] all but it's also true that jesus gives us the context the context is he's the bread from heaven he's talking about believing here this all has to do with believing and it all has to do with the
[00:35:43] fact that as we must feast upon natural food in order to naturally continue to consist in life, so we also need to continuously feast on Jesus in the spiritual way that we may continue to be
[00:36:00] given or, you know, cultivated and given eternal life. Jesus then reiterates that in verse 58. He says, this is the bread that came down from heaven. He says, it's not like the bread that your fathers
[00:36:13] 8. And so the picture is, is that he is offering himself as the bread, the true bread, that which all of the Old Testament prophets and particularly the manna and everything point to. That's what
[00:36:28] Jesus is talking about. Is there anything with this related to the Lord's Supper? Well, yes, of course there is. And the night that Jesus does institute the Lord's Supper, he does take bread and he says, this is my body.
[00:36:45] And then he does take a cup and he does say, this is my blood.
[00:36:49] But again, once again, he wasn't saying, this is going to turn into my body and you're going to eat this.
[00:36:54] He doesn't say, this is going to turn into my blood and you're going to drink that.
[00:36:59] He's using this as a metaphor and a symbol to teach us something about himself.
[00:37:04] And in that case, it's because his body was about to be broken and his blood about to be shed in the crucifixion.
[00:37:11] So is there a shared metaphor between the two?
[00:37:14] Sure, sure there is.
[00:37:16] But there's not a direct line that one explains the other.
[00:37:20] So then I guess I would close with this last bit.
[00:37:23] And here's the question that I have.
[00:37:26] How do we feast on the Lord Jesus Christ?
[00:37:31] How do we eat his flesh, so to speak, and drink his blood?
[00:37:36] How does this come about?
[00:37:38] Well, it comes about, first of all, through placing your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, believing in Him that He is the one that grants eternal life, and placing all of your faith and trust in Him.
[00:37:51] His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, He worked to accomplish our salvation.
[00:37:57] Through His act of obedience, He fulfilled the law that He might be that perfect sacrifice, yielding Himself as the sacrifice for our sins.
[00:38:06] but even after coming to faith in Christ we continue to feast upon Christ through the means of grace that he's given to us those things that he has granted to us that we may continue to
[00:38:18] increase in him in our sanctification and our walk with him things like what we're doing right now the proclamation of your of the word of God or the gathering together of the body of Christ as a
[00:38:30] means of grace that baptism is given to us as a means of grace testifying to us the covenant of God given to us through the belief in Christ Jesus, that is given to us and manifested in a
[00:38:44] physical sign and seal of baptism. That when we continue in prayer, looking to Christ, we're feasting upon Christ through prayer as we meet with him, and that means of grace that prayer is given to us, right? That we may continue to grow and feast and walk with Christ. Because the
[00:39:05] fact of the matter is is that all of us in here all of us in here were once babies and as we went from milk to more solid food and so on and so forth we continue to grow and grow and grow in
[00:39:19] our physical state so also within the our christian walk walking with christ that we continue to grow and grow and grow in our relationship with him and our sanctification and maturity in him and so we
[00:39:34] must be continually feasting upon Christ. Continually feasting on him for our growth and salvation or sanctification and maturity in Christ. We've not been called to stay babies.
[00:39:50] We've also not been called to look back at some past event where I sort of prayed some prayer or something along those lines, but it doesn't have a current manifestation in my life.
[00:40:02] that we must continue to walk with him and be cultivated in him and feast on the Lord as we continue to grow into eternal life. Have you feasted upon Christ? Have you placed your faith
[00:40:20] and trust in him? Are you currently walking with him? Are you placing your faith and trust on some past event or experience or are you continually walking with him today continuing to feast through his word and through the fellowship of the saints gathering together are you continuing
[00:40:41] to feast upon christ i hope that you are because his flesh is true food and his blood true drink let us pray our heavenly father thank you for this very difficult passage i'm sure i didn't do it the
[00:41:01] justice it deserved lord but heavenly father i do know that i believe it and i pray heavenly father that you would take this passage and and give us great understanding in our hearts and our minds
[00:41:15] lord of what it means truly to feast upon the bread of life the lord jesus christ i pray heavenly Father, that you would please grant us continual repentance and faith in seeking the Lord for
[00:41:29] sustained nourishment in this life. And I thank you, Lord, that you do continue to nourish us unto salvation, Lord. I pray, Heavenly Father, now as we gather together to look at a tangible reminder of the broken body and the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that this would
[00:41:47] be a wonderful time of communion and thanksgiving, Lord, as we participate in this means of grace that you've given to us. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.